GITA Phoenix 2018 (March 5-6) — REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! REGISTER HERE! Join us at what is certain to be one of the most unique, informative and worthwhile geospatial events of 2018. Don't Forget — The CGA 811 Excavation Safety Conference & Expo will be running in the same building, March 6-8! Details on BOTH conferences HERE!

EnerGIS 2018 (April 26-27) — EnerGIS is a GITA-sponsored conference held in suburban Pittsburgh, which features inspiring and challenging talks about GIS within the energy industry! Call for Papers is Now Open HERE! Scholarship Opportunities are Now Available HERE! Save the dates, join us by presenting, apply for educational scholarships today!

Directions MagazineHopefully by now everyone is convinced of the importance of paper maps as an essential component of your GIS toolbox. Our generation of GIS professionals has been blessed with a rich digital database. Even in the age of instant access to massive amounts of digital geospatial data, our base maps are often derived from analog sources.
I'd like to explore various scenarios to discuss how we enrich our data during the cycle of paper to digital and back again. READ MORE

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Inside GNSS GNSS solutions are widely spread and currently able to provide excellent navigation performance under a variety of scenarios, especially with the advent of assisted and cloud GNSS solutions. However, when used indoors and in deep urban canyons, they still suffer from many challenges such as outages of the system due to very low signal powers received indoors or very high positioning errors due to multipath. READ MORE

Novara GeoSolutions Novara GeoSolutions, the industry leader in geospatial software and services for pipeline assets, announced a launch of its new website. This new design offers quick and easy access to industry geospatial information. The website also has a comprehensive Resources section so that viewers can create an account to gain access to videos, past webinars, publications and product information. READ MORE

xyHtA low-cost way to get hands-on UAS experience is to purchase a hobby drone and practice with it before making a bigger investment in a commercial-grade unit. I've talked to UAS professionals who agree. Why? The low cost makes it easy to afford and less painful should you crack it up. And, trust me on this, you will crash it. Because when you're learning to fly a UAS, you should practice — a lot. READ MORE

Geospatial WorldStimulated by a range of new global shifts, the balance of power between existing and new players is shifting drastically as the geospatial industry moves towards innovation, convergence and transformation. And like all industries across the world, the geospatial services ecosystem is shaken and stirred. In this changing scenario, industry leaders surely have lot to do, and say.READ MORE

Geospatial WorldBusinesses thrive on innovation, but even the greatest innovation could remain stalled if there is no workforce to take charge, implement and carry it forward. Robots are yet to take over the world and the role of humans in bringing ideas to implementation and putting technology to actual use cannot be stressed enough. People are the backbone of any industry; the more skilled workforce an industry has, the more growth it is equipped to witness.READ MORE

Sensors & SystemsNASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey should join forces to track changes in Earth's temperature, according to a federally funded study on climate change. The three agencies should implement "a coordinated approach for their space-based environmental observations to further advance Earth science and applications for the next decade," according to a new study released by the National Academies of Sciences. READ MORE

GCNUnmanned aerial systems have promised to make infrastructure inspection easier, prompting transportation departments across the country to experiment with the devices to get a closer look at bridges in particular. But how accurate are these UAS?
Drone-based sensor systems are now being put into the air with hardware that provides high-density point clouds at a lower cost than ground-based mobile mapping systems, according to Qassim Abdullah, a chief scientist and associate at Geospatial Services at Woolpert.READ MORE

GIS ProfessionalWhen it comes to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, a suitable analogy to think about is a courtroom based TV show. Every few episodes, the judge will "throw out" a case because a lawyer did not collect evidence using legal means. The key thing to remember for geospatialists who watch these types of shows is that under GDPR, the incorrect collection and use of information will soon be considered as a punishable offense in itself.READ MORE

State ScoopFlorida has just taken itself off a very short list of states that don't have a designated official for managing geospatial information systems projects.
Ekaterina Fitos is the state's first geographic information officer, officials confirmed to StateScoop on Friday, and has been working under the state's Agency for State Technology since Dec. 27. READ MORE